The Writers' Trust of Canada has announced a new, one-time program celebrating emerging writers. "Five x Five" sees five established writers, all of whom are past Writers' Trust award honourees, select five emerging Canadian writers of fiction or poetry who they believe have strong potential to enter Canada's literary canon. Along with the recognition from some of Canada's most beloved authors, the "Five x Five" recipients will share a $25,000 prize.

The "Five x Five" Recipients:

Linda Besner, selected by Ken Babstock

Megan Gail Coles, selected by Michael Crummey

Ghalib Islam, selected by Madeleine Thien

Eliza Robertson, selected by Joseph Boyden

Melanie Siebert, selected by Esi Edugyan

"Five x Five" was made possible by the RBC Emerging Artists Project and an initiative in early 2015 to award $25,000 in funding to one of six arts organizations in an online poll. The Writers' Trust generated the most support with 35.1% of the votes cast.

For more information on the "Five x Five" program and to read citations, please visit the Writers' Trust website.

Brian Henderson and I have been friends since the 1960s, so in a way I have both a unique advantage as well as disadvantage when it comes to his poetry. But I have to say that with each of his ten books of poetry, he has always surprised me in ways I couldn’t have imagined or anticipated. From Paracelcus to The Alphamiricon, from The Expanding Room to Year Zero to The Viridical Book of the Silent Planet, he has consistently searched out new boundaries, combining an uncommon sense of innovation and invention with a surgeon’s or anatomist’s love of language.

In Henderson’s last book, Nerve Language, which also was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, he writes: